If the state can't contact at least 25 percent of its licensed foster parents, is it doing an effective job of monitoring children's welfare?

A Seattle lawyer says no. And the finding emerges as Washington's foster care system may be headed back to court. Lawyers for foster children argue that the state hasn't made good on promised reforms.

A comprehensive survey of foster parents to be released Thursday reveals that the state had non-working telephone numbers for nearly 1,000 parents out of 3,800 in its database, said Casey Trupin, a Seattle lawyer in the landmark case that prompted an overhaul of Washington's child-welfare system.

Trupin said lawyers for foster children plan to return to court by early November, arguing that the state is failing to deliver. The state has no solid plan to ensure that every foster child is visited by a caseworker every 30 days and caseworkers carry too large an average caseload, among other shortcomings in the system, he said.

DSHS Secretary Robin Arnold-Williams declined Wednesday to comment on the survey, saying all parties had agreed to wait until Thursday to speak about it.

But she strongly disagreed with Trupin's contention that her agency has not made enough progress, or even no progress, in several key areas outlined by the Braam Oversight Panel, a group of national experts that set out more than 50 benchmarks for the state to meet over time.

The plan grew out of the 2004 settlement of a class-action lawsuit that accused the state of repeatedly violating the constitutional rights of Jessica Braam and thousands of other foster children by shuttling them from home to home without adequate services.

"Clearly we know there's more to be done," Arnold-Williams said. "This was meant to be a seven-year agreement. We're in year four."

But DSHS will "continue to march forward," she said. "We've been given significant resources. The foster parent survey that comes out (Thursday) will be a great opportunity for us. There's good news in that."

While DSHS has made progress in some ways, Trupin said, "the department, the governor and the Legislature haven't gotten behind this plan as they should have, given how much time and expert knowledge has been poured into it."

Arnold-Williams said the state has invested $60 million in new funds in children's services, adding 300 caseworkers in the past biennium, with 87 more to come by June 2009, to help the agency make monthly visits and reduce caseload levels.

"There's no way we can hire and bring all staff on at one time," she said. "We chose to prioritize monthly visits to those children most vulnerable in our eyes," such as children returned to their birth parents after being in foster care.

Arnold-Williams said there is "no disagreement that caseloads were too high," with the average caseworker handling 25 cases in 2005. That number is down to 21, still above the benchmark of 18.

Frequency of home visits and caseload levels are expected to further drop when the new caseworkers come on board, she said.

The secretary emphasized that the benchmarks outlined in the Braam plan are only part of the improvements made by her agency in recent years.

For example, in 2005, a year before the Braam settlement, the state began responding to emergency referrals about foster children within 24 hours, and within 72 hours for cases where children were not at imminent risk.

"We are consistently meeting that 95 to 96 percent of the time," Arnold-Williams said.

The old policy allowed the state to wait up to 10 days.

The state has "addressed many of the issues that are outlined in the Braam settlement," said Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Lake Forest Park, who heads the House Children and Family Services Committee. "We have not addressed every one of them. Clearly, they have not been addressed to the satisfaction of the plaintiffs."

Kagi said she continues to find it difficult to get a sense of the priorities of the foster children's lawyers, no small problem when 54 benchmarks are in play.

"You can't ask an agency to implement 40 different items at once," she said. "I, frankly, would appreciate some clarity from the court. Are they really asking us to address every one of the settlement items all at once, or are there priorities?"